If you are a fan of card-based battle games, then the new game Necronator: Dead Wrong by the indie publisher Modern Wolf and developer Toge Productions should be right up your alley. Necronator: Dead Wrong is a unique blend of RTS and card-based battler. The game has been out in Early Access for quite some time however the full version is now available on Steam and comes with brand new content, updates, and patches since the Early Access release of the title. This is our review of Necronator: Dead Wrong in which we put on our evil hat and spread corruption across some villages with our hordes of the undead army.
In Necronator: Dead Wrong, you pick your commander from a choice of two and start your journey to spread corruption in the world under the supervision of a bat named Chubat. Chubat acts like your guide and helps you get settled in your seat as the commander of the undead army. Each commander comes with its own unique abilities in the game but at this point, there are only two commanders that you can choose from with a third one arriving in the game soon. After choosing your Commander, you are given your very first relic and your starting deck and you then begin your very first mission.
I will say that the starting image for the game is extremely strong. The visual art and how the game plays out is just brilliant. Each battle is pretty much the same as you start dispensing your troops by using your Unit Cards and then supporting them in battle with various Spell and Utility Cards. You will need to destroy your opposition’s castle in order to win the game. Along the way, you will come across different villages and other enemy camps as well that you will first need to take over. The game already has set paths for your forces so they will follow that path.
You can also change the paths for a different strategy or to attack an enemy from two different directions. It all comes down to your playing skill ultimately whether you use this to your advantage or not. While your troops are fighting, you can give them damage buffs or health boosts with different support cards. You can also use special attacks on your enemies as well. After every win, you will earn Souls and a choice of your card from a set of three cards. This new card will then become a part of your deck and you can later use it in battle when it pops up.
Using cards utilize mana and your homebase will generate 1 mana automatically. As you take over additional villages while making your way to your opponent’s castle, each new village will give you an additional Mana Point which will allow you to use more cards frequently. The first one to destroy the other one’s castle wins the game. The main campaign of the game plays out in the form of a branching tree where you are free to pick your next location. However, ultimately all paths lead to the very same ending. However, how you reach the end, depends on you as you pick a different spot every time you complete a mission. I mostly picked battles but often heading to Question Marks resulted in pretty unique experiences as well such as a random debuff or a mercenary battle.
In Necronomnomicon, you have the ability to check all of the cards, their specifications and upgrades, and also all of the relics of the game. This is a great place to familiarize yourself with all of the cards and relics in the game. Necronator: Dead Wrong also comes with mod support and you have the opportunity to try out campaign maps built by other players or build maps yourself and have others give it a shot. Me, however, I did not really explore this feature of the game but I am sure that plenty of players have been busy building custom levels for the title. Mod support always extends the overall life of any game and I am sure that this will be the case with Necronator: Dead Wrong as well.
While the overall concept and visual design of the game are brilliant, sadly the game still needs plenty of work and I think that the game needed more time in the Early Access phase. When it comes to gameplay, there are many problems such as bugs and annoying bits that ruin the gameplay for a player. For example, the difficulty spike at certain levels is not-balanced completely yet. You complete a level easily and the next level will punish you extremely harshly. You somehow manage to complete that particular level, then another mission further ahead gets the same difficulty spike out of the blue.
This is further made frustrating by the fact that the enemies do not appear to be using Mana for creating units like us. In certain missions, the enemy suddenly starts spawning units upon units, and it becomes impossible to fight them. It is an extremely mixed system where a level is completely fine, and then this happens, and then the next mission is completely fine again. The levels look good during the early hours but as you spend some hours in the game, they start to look bland and repetitive including the missions as there is not much of a variety in missions and landscapes.
For me, the one mechanic that needs further refinement is the gameplay of Necronator: Dead Wrong. The annoying glitch where the enemy units get stuck as they are unable to find their way on the path becomes really annoying in certain situations while the unit spam also needs some work. While I do not mind upping the challenge for certain missions but the insane spamming of units completely ruins the game and turns the mission into a nightmare. Writing a final verdict for this game at this point is not easy because I really want to like this game and want to give a really good score but sadly the game requires more work but I am extremely optimistic about this game in the future and will be looking out for more of its updates.
Final Verdict:
Necronator: Dead Wrong is a great card-battler. The unit designs are wacky and the short, challenging missions offer a great way of quickly jumping in the game and playing a few battles. While the campaign may offer smaller battles, the Endless mode satisfies your need for longer, survival-type battles where you can really up the ante and try to survive as long as you can in the game. While there is not too much content in the game, for the time being, developer Toge Productions is adding more content to the title soon. In its current form, sadly I cannot really recommend that you go for it however since the developer is still pretty active and is working to improve the game with future updates and content drops, the game might eventually get better and have even more content in the future. The game becomes repetitive after some time and the gameplay needs plenty of refinement in different aspects. It is a decent game in its current form but ultimately the game needs plenty of work specially in the later sections of the game. Still, if you want to try out the game, you can do so from the official Steam page of the game. My suggestion? Give the developers a little bit more time and then jump in a more refined product.
Final Score: 6.8/10
